In Pictures: Forty years since the Iran-Iraq war began

Iraqi troops atop Soviet-made tanks try to cross the Karun river, northeast of Khorramshahr, in Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq war, while smoke billows in the background from a the burning Abadan pipeline. On September 22, 1980, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent troops into neighbouring Iran, starting an 8 year war in which hundreds of thousands were killed. One of the deadliest wars in the Middle East, it was rooted in a border dispute between the two oil producing nations.

An Iraqi tank trapped in flood waters and mud just outside the Iranian town of Ahvaz, during the Iran-Iraq war.

Photo taken on March 18, 1985, shows blindfolded Iranian prisoners of war are being shown to reporters as they stand by a group of Iraqi soldiers in a makeshift camp near the al-Howeizah swamps, north of Basra after a foiled offensive launched by Iranian troops.

Picture dated March 20, 1988, shows the bodies of a Kurdish father and his baby in his arms in Halabja in northeastern Iraq, after they were killed in an Iraqi chemical attack on the city.

An Iranian mother hugs her son in the capital Tehran on August 1, 1989 following his release from an Iraqi prisoners camp, after the 1980-1988 war between the neighbouring countries.

Photo taken on June 20, 1988, shows 14-year-old Iranian prisoners of war under guard on the Iraq-Iran border during the war between the two countries, among some reported 1500 taken during the Iraqi May offensive on the Iranian town of Mehran.

An US Navy minesweeping helicopter leads the way for the 12th US reflagged Kuwaiti tanker convoy, as two tankers, Gass Prince and Ocean City, are being escorted by four US war ships (Haws, Ford, Raleigh and Standley) and the US helicopter carrier Guadacanal, heading out of the Gulf three days after US ships bombed two Iranian oil platforms, amid the Tanker War on October 22, 1987.

Picture from January 22, 1987, shows an Iranian soldier guards some Iraqi prisoners of war at a camp in Ahvaz, some 100Km north of Abadan, who were captured in the two-week-old Kerbala-5 offensive.

Firefighting vessels extinguish flames on the Singapore-flagged 85-thousand-ton tanker Norman Atlantic it was attacked by an Iranian warship in Omani territorial waters as it approached the Strait of Hormuz in December 6, 1987.

A picture shows a partial view of a damaged mosque's minaret in Iraq's southern region of al-Faw on September 17, 2020, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting during the war.

A column of smoke billows from the burning Iranian city of Abadan, during the Iran-Iraq war on October 24, 1980.

Some of 1500 Iranian war prisoners captured during the Iraq-Iran as they wait for food at Ramadi camp in western Iraq on April 2, 1985.

File photo taken on August 20, 1988, Iraqis flash victory signs in the capital Baghdad as they celebrate a ceasefire between Iraq and Iran, at war since 1980.

A picture shows a partial view of the al-Rahman mosque, built in 1989 after the conclusion of the Iran-Iraq war, in the southern region of al-Faw the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the 1980-1988 conflict.

Iraqi soldiers celebrate their victory over Iran in the strategic Faw peninsula of southeastern Iraq that was partly occupied by Iranian forces in February 1986.

A handout photo released by the Iranian official news agency IRNA on March 16, 1988, shows the bodies of Kurdish adults and children killed by an Iraqi chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja in northeastern Iraq. While the exact number of those killed in the war is not known, at least 650,000 died, roughly two-thirds of them Iranians, according to French historian Pierre Razoux.

An Iraqi soldier flashes a victory sign as his comrades look on, in a trench dug near Al-Howeizah swamps, north of Basra city in southern Iraq on March 18, 1985..

An Iranian fighter operates anti-aircraft artillery as another climbs a captured armoured personnel carrier to use it against Iraqi troops in Faw during the Iran-Irak war in 1986.

Iraqi troops flash victory signs as they move past a destroyed Soviet-made tank on their way to the front line during the battle for the city of al-Howeizah, north of Basra on March 18, 1985.

Iraqi soldiers wave near a tank after the destruction of Iranian positions in the strategic Faw peninsula of southeastern Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.